Job responsibilities
Clinical
To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the clinical health psychology service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients care.
To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.
Teaching, training, and supervision
To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a senior clinical psychologist and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.
To continue to gain wider post-qualification experience of clinical psychology and the amount and nature of such experience to be agreed with the head of specialty.
To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and to provide supervision to other MDT staffs psychological work, as appropriate.
To provide professional and clinical supervision of assistant/graduate psychologists and, as appropriate, to contribute to the supervision of individual cases for trainee clinical psychologists.
To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical psychology.
To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.
Management, recruitment, policy and service development
To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the teams operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
To manage the workloads of assistant and graduate psychologists, within the framework of the Hillingdon services and the Psychology department policies and procedures.
To be involved, as appropriate, in the shortlisting and interviewing of assistant/graduate psychologists under the direction of the Head of Clinical Health Psychology.
As negotiated and within time constraints, the post holder will be expected to attend relevant clinical meetings within and outside the Hillingdon Service.
The post holder will be required to attend the regular professional meetings of the Clinical Health Psychology Specialty and other Departmental meetings.
Research and service evaluation
To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within the Department to help develop service provision.
To familiarise themselves with, and to comply with, the Trusts requirements on research governance.
IT responsibilities (other than those used for research)
The post holder will input and maintain, appropriate computer and manual clinical records and statistical data and provide this to the Service Manager/Head of Speciality when necessary.
The postholder will engage in relevant computer and IT training as required.
The postholder will be responsible for ensuring that those psychologists they are responsible for/supervise engage in relevant computer and IT training as required and will input and maintain, appropriate computer and manual clinical records and statistical data.
General
To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the postholders professional and service manager.
To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychology across the service, by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical/counselling psychology and related disciplines.
To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice and Trust policies and procedures.
To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health.
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